Librarian Class Attendance: Methods, Outcomes and Opportunities Dianne Cmor & Victoria Marshall Distributed eLibrary Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar IATUL 2006 Conference, Porto, Portugal

Overview Case study of pilot project wherein a librarian is embedded in Journal Club and given an active role with students Dual set of objectives - student learning & service measurement Measuring student learning outcomes in relation to librarian activities Evaluating our measurement methods in relation to demonstrating value

Setting/Background Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar - mirror curriculum in NY Distributed eLibrary - mandate to distribute resources/services beyond physical space Attempts to distribute library services Attempts to demonstrate positive outcomes Concerned faculty as the entrée we needed

Objectives Student Learning Objectives To expand student knowledge and use of high quality resources To introduce students to concepts relating to scholarly communication and publishing Library Measurement Objectives To develop and test a triangulated approach to measuring outcomes To assess a participatory model in terms of student learning and outcomes measurement SLO - defined in consultation with faculty LMO - defined in consultation with Manager, Information Services

Method - Student Learning Weekly meetings with student presenters only Standard content plus article specific content discussed Resources, concepts and tips all compiled on a course webpage for all students Librarian attended Journal Club to ascertain level of knowledge, note gaps, act as an immediate resource person Weekly meetings - required (strongly encouraged) by faculty Standard content - 1-2 specific resources; intro to SC concepts of citing, being cited and the tools used e.g. bib and citation searching Specific content - fed by article and previous displays of student knowledge gaps in relation to SC e.g. article types, journal IF, errata, etc.

Method - Library Measurement Participant Observation diary of interactions and observable outcomes; textual analysis of qualitative data Quantitative Data Gathering RefTracker for number/type of interactions, time spent, associated outcomes Survey student and faculty perceptions of value As we know that each method has its strengths and weaknesses - using a triangulated methodology increases validity of overall results

Results - Student Learning Textual analysis of diary data Categories derived from data Counted all outcomes - meetings and classroom Analysis done by uninvolved librarian; validated by faculty member Bored - here’s a pretty picture I can speak to, but let’s summarize the method and move on to the most significant results

Results - Student Learning (cont.) Observation Data Students were introduced to a range of resources - little evidence of their use Students demonstrated knowledge of scholarly communication concepts, tools, and analysis Socialization to information/librarians Peer learning; colleagues as information sources Survey data Reinforced that concepts of scholarly communication were learned by students Most students and all faculty perceived positive effect(s) Student Questionnaire - 14 responses; 11 met; 8 found it positively effected presentation - noted SC concepts and new resources (though not used) Faculty interviews - 2 interviews (of 3) plus emails and conversations with all 3 faculty throughout pilot

Results - Library Measurement Observation Data provided reasonable evidence of learning outcomes; reinforced survey data Quantitative Data (RefTracker) provided time spent and types of activity, but failed to associate activities with outcomes 37 hours of librarian time, 5 categories of activity outcomes available in RefTracker too broad for purpose Survey Data provided insight into student and faculty perceptions of value; reinforced observation data Obs. Data and Survey data - observed outcomes coincided with perceived value Quantitative Data - helped us track exactly what we were doing and time spent; need to have a tool that allows us to track all of those outcomes from the diary - then may not need separate diary e.g. spent 1 hour in JC - observable outcomes of that attendance included 1 clarification of SC concept; 1 demonstration of a resource; 2 instances of socialization to information/librarians

Conclusions/Future Directions Librarian class attendance can produce positive outcomes that are worth the time spent Measuring this kind of worth is possible with the right combination of tools and approaches In future, more clearly articulated goals of program which will allow us to refine means of measurement Impact is elusive - define what we are measuring, refine measurement tools, and involve faculty in assessing the value of outcomes